When I started my current job a few years back, I was apprehensive about the workload. I knew the previous legal secretary had requested a transfer within the firm because she felt overwhelmed. And, when I met her and found her perfectly intelligent and capable, I grew even more worried. What made me think I could handle a desk she couldn’t?

That is, I worried until I got a few weeks into the job, thoroughly explored the desk, and gained a sense of how my predecessor, whom I’ll refer to as “Patience,” worked.

Patience made her job far more time-consuming than it needed to be by keeping unnecessary files, maintaining unnecessary indexes, sending faxes from a fax machine rather than her desktop, typing her shipping labels on carbon-copy forms rather than creating them online, and . . . well, I could go on, but you get the picture.

In essence, Patience was doing two things wrong:

• Not using technology to its fullest
• Keeping records that had no purpose

The way Patience worked might have been okay in the days of the low-tech office, when one legal secretary worked for one lawyer. But today, that one-to-one ratio is as obsolete as a manual typewriter. Two- and three-to-one are common, with four-, five-, and six-to-one ratios not unheard of.

What makes law firms think that 21st century legal secretaries can handle up to six times the work their predecessors did? There are many answers to that question, but all of them rely, at some level, on technology. If you’re using yesterday’s processes to do today’s work, you’re going to work much harder than you need to, and, like Patience, you might even find yourself unable to cope.

Law firms provide computers, the Internet, and software for a reason: to save money by making you more productive. They’re going to expect heightened productivity whether you use all those tools or not, so why not make it easier for yourself? Get to know your firm’s software, and use it to the max. Even if you work for a smaller firm that has little more than the Microsoft Office suite, there are myriad creative ways you can use those applications, some of which are suggested on this blog here, here and here.

In addition to cozying up to technology, think critically about your processes and look for opportunities to streamline:

Don’t do any work that doesn’t benefit you, your lawyer, the firm, or the client. Ask yourself some key questions:

• Is it required?
• Is it helpful?
• Does anyone use it?
• Is it duplicative of someone else’s effort?

Keep records electronically to the extent it’s feasible, and discard any physical records that duplicate electronic ones. Patience typed most of her pleading file indexes in Word rather than indexing pleadings in the firm’s document storage database. Not only were those Word-document pleading indexes more cumbersome to maintain than an electronic database, but not keeping electronic copies of her pleadings meant she was continually pulling folders and making copies of pleadings. It also meant those pleadings weren’t text-searchable.

If you don’t need it, either throw it away or send it to long-term storage. Patience had a slew of 3-inch ring binders crammed under her desk. They were filled with contact sheets for closed files, and there was no apparent purpose for them. Those contact sheets were not being used, they were available in the firm’s word processing document storage database, and much of the information in them could also be retrieved from the firm’s electronic rolodex.

Just because something is a good idea doesn’t mean you should do it. There are some things you could do if you had the extra time, and, once in a while, you’d be glad you did them. But, realistically, the work isn’t always worth it. I used to dutifully print and attach my Federal Express delivery confirmations to file copies of transmittal letters. Then, during an exceptionally busy period, that practice fell by the wayside. By the time I got around to catching up, I realized that I had, in 15 years, only needed to produce one Federal Express proof of delivery. Was it really worth the dozens of hours I’d spent printing and attaching? I don’t think so. Now, I attach only my proof of shipping. When the confirmation e-mails arrive, I drag and drop them into my Outlook case folders and leave it at that. If I need one, I can locate and print it in a flash. Meanwhile, I’ve freed up considerable time for higher-value tasks.

Keep a neat desk that’s free of excess clutter. Dusty piles of paper and cabinets bulging with hoarded office supplies don’t make for pleasant surroundings. Use Outlook folders to keep track of ongoing projects, and ask yourself how many sticky pads you really need at any given moment. An occasional trip to the supply room will keep the circulation flowing in your legs.